SAN DIEGO, Calif. — San Diego’s North County Transit District will abandon its original plans to build safety fencing along the Del Mar bluffs under a settlement reached last month with the California Coastal Commission, and as a result will end its long-running case before the Surface Transportation Board regarding the fence and bluff-stablization work.
In return, the Coastal Commission will end its lawsuit against the NCTD over the fence project.
The NCTD, owner of the former Santa Fe Surf Line between Oceanside, Calif., and San Diego, filed the request to dismiss the STB action on Friday, Oct. 10. The case dated to an STB filing on Aug. 28, 2021, in which the transit agency, operator of Coaster commuter trains, sought a ruling to keep the city of Del Mar and the Coastal Commission from regulating the NCTD’s maintenance and right-of-way work [see “Digest: San Diego transit agency seeks STB ruling …,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 15, 2024].
A prolonged series of legal actions and negotiations followed.
The STB filing includes terms of the settlement between the NCTD and the Coastal Commission, which was reached on Sept. 19. It notes that the Coastal Commission has accepted that the bluff stabilization work is consistent with the California Coastal Management Program, provided that certain conditions are satisfied. It also notes that the NCTD’s parent organization, the San Diego Association of Governments, has agreed to development of a blufftop trail east of the railroad tracks, and that the low-profile design for fencing accompanying that project “would not adversely impact visual resources.” As a result of that plan, the NCTD’s earlier fencing plan — approved by its board in January 2022, leading to legal action by the Coastal Commission — will be abandoned.
The NCTD has agreed to not file any further petition with the STB regarding that project, while the Coastal Commission will file for dismissal of it suit once the STB matter is dismissed.
Hopefully the SDNTC will be held harmless from any and all deaths and injuries that may result as a result of this out settlement!
Make the agencies who don’t want the fencing be responsible and assume all costs when lawsuits get filed if any injuries or deaths occur as they are on record as not wishing to protect people and their stupidity.
Only in California, the state populated by 35 million Karens of both genders who insist on the right to walk across railroad tracks.
“Both Genders” in California, isn’t it an infinite number of genders?